Photo and video from Inga Meldere's and Oscar Santillan's exhibition at Temnikova & Kasela gallery

September 19, 2013
Author Echo Gone Wrong

Temnikova & Kasela features an exhibition by Latvian artist Inga Meldere and Ecuadorian artist Oscar Santillan.

Meldere’s series of gentle watercolours address the relationship between personal and collective memory. The artist locates this relationship in geographical and cultural terms, creating eastern fantasy landscapes intertwined with elements taken from western fairy-tales. Drawing on Japanese and Chinese drawing as her influence, Meldere attempts to focus on the issues present in the discussion about the differences and diversity of cultural contexts and identities as well as ambiguity of the terms themselves.

Oscar Santillan also departs from a certain ambivalence, his work focused on the area between reality and fiction. For this exhibition, the artist presents a video work entitled “A Hymn” exploring the Christian idea of the transubstantiation of Jesus’ flesh into bread. The transformation of the matter is, in fact, experienced by the viewer when flesh is transformed into sound. A performer, embodied by artist Inga Meldere, is intensely working out in a church. As her body warms up, the heat produces sweat, every drop evaporating into sound.

‘A Hymn’ proposes an unexpected insight into topics such as spirituality, gender, and the limits of the human body.

A Hymn from Oscar Santillan on Vimeo.

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Oscar Santillan ‘A Hymn’

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Inga Meldere ‘Dictator’

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Inga Meldere, ceramic miniature

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Inga Meldere, ceramic miniature

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The exhibition is open till 10th of October at Rüütli 4, Tallinn 10130, from Wednsday till Saturday, 2-7 pm.